The Heart Of The Law - The Badatitudes Part Two
Matthew 6:1
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."
What God intends for spiritual growth is not "good works" when it's focused on the physical sacrifices and aspects of a human life lived for the sake of self-righteousness. The law was intended to govern the spirits and hearts of mankind, and not meant to be interpreted from the perspective of self-righteousness based upon outwards signs, or the body and its coverings. It wasn't intended that we be governed by virtue of our physical appearance and physical actions. The Godly intentions were that the law would govern what comes out of the heart, and what inspires the desires of the spirit. Again, it boils down to intent.
The law makes the whole world guilty before God. It was intended that it would prevent us from coming before God in our own self-righteousness. It was intended that we would see, upon reflection up against the law, that we are in fact not righteous at all. And then run to the kingdom of heaven for our redemption. And of course, ultimately finding that redemption in Jesus Christ. That was to be our GREATEST desire and govern our GREATEST sacrifices. This is why the Word tells us that who should not swear by ourselves. That we should not give oaths as evidence of our own faithfulness. Just be a person of your word, anything else is deceitful. The attitude of the heart is the heart of the matter.
What are your motives?
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them."
Jesus is now addressing the implications of the kingdom of God in regard to a life of piety. He cuts right to the point and addresses the problem of seeking recognition from others in your spirituality. He targets three examples of these Judaizing situations...
(offerings, prayers, and fasting)
...that were prevalent in his time, and frankly this hasn't changed much even today.
And if I'm being honest, Jesus does seem to focus on the negative aspects of these issues, “Do not look somber as the hypocrites do”. But let's keep in mind, this whole admonition is about the intent. This whole teaching by Jesus about the Badatitudes, in spiritual matters, is about false teaching and false motives. So, it's only natural that he's going to find fault in the faulty practices and perversions of the gospel. He has come to give witness to the truth after all. HE IS THE LAW. And so he cannot help but expose the unrighteousness.
Jesus goes on to teach that those who practice pious living for the benefit of others, (to be seen by others), will not receive their reward in heaven.
Why not?
They're doing righteous stuff, right?
Isn't that good?
What is the problem with doing good, even if you do harbor some secret desire in your heart to be seen doing it? The good is still being done, right? Isn't it serving God's purposes if the good work gets done, even if my motives are questionable?
Remember, it's about attitudes of the heart, not the actions of the body. God doesn't need your sacrifices; he desires a changed heart and mind.
Galatian 1:10
"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
That's the struggle of the flesh that EVERY Christian must war against, especially the ministers for Christ. The lesson in this teaching is that disciples should be careful to perform their pious acts in private, for the benefit of his or her own spiritual growth. Only in so doing can they be sure that God will see and reward them for their increasing faith. The value of our acts of piety, our sacrificial living, is linked to our motives. The reward is spiritual growth today, and heavenly rewards to come, when our motives are kept between God and ourselves. Otherwise, our reward is the praise of mankind today, and no reward in the kingdom to come. Our only motive should be to please God. Our Christian actions must be done with God in mind, not people. The only reward we should be seeking today is an increased faith.
And here's the real reason why this is important.
You're going to fail. Not just spiritual failure, but flesh failure as well.
That's it. You're a failure when it comes to sin. If you think you're not, you're a liar.
1 John 1:8
"If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth."
And so, the danger inherent in the life of piety that is self-interested is hypocrisy and contradiction will eventually arise. You could have an amazing outward attitude of prayer, beautiful inspiring public prayers, and have a heart filled with selfishness and deceit. You can be teaching youth group and Sunday school every week, and be drunk every day. You can lead the youth group into the heart of the gospel truths, and also harbor sexually immoral thoughts about those children. And God forbid you act on those thoughts.
You can be the Pastor and Bible teacher of a megachurch ministry, leading the children of God into righteous living and holy worship for decades, and watch it all collapse in a moment of sexual deviance, having committed adulterous acts in hidden places.
You can live life how you want and do what you want with that inheritance, but the day will come when your self-righteousness no longer matters to you. Suddenly you'll look around at your life and your family and you'll take it all in and see the futility of the rewards you stored up for yourself. You'll think about all the evil things you've done, and thought, and welcomed into your heart. And you'll be disturbed if you're truly a child of God. You'll look at the pigsty you've created for yourself and you'll hopefully cry out to God and repent.
Hopefully.
But if you're a minister of the gospel, a man of God, who served his own self-interests and you've been found out, you're going to be exposed by the law.
That's the danger, and the responsibility of a life of piety. That's the heart of the law. It will find you out. Your sins will find you out.
THE GOOD NEWS
The good news is, every prodigal is blessed, because Jesus Christ has already forgiven them, and he's waiting for them to come home. The Father is watching for them, he wants to see them coming, he wants to meet them on the road and he's going to celebrate when they finally do come home. In fact he's going to throw a party.
And the ironic thing is this...the repentant child of God receives the applause of heaven that they always sought from the people. Not because they deserve it, not that it's owed to them. They already forfeited that inheritance.
No...they receive this reward of grace because it pleases God to do so. He's seen their contrite heart, broken and softened, and he knows their intentions are now truly purified.
The temptation to perform pious acts of religious sacrifice and sacrament for the approval of the people must be resisted at every level. In prayer, in giving, and in sacrificial fasting. All of it MUST be done in secret.
Matthew 6:4
"so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
Your reward is found in the Bema seat of judgment, “the judgment seat of Christ”. Some works will look like wood, straw, and sawdust. Some will look like rock, stone, and metal. All the works of mankind go through the fire of judgment. What's left after passing through the fire is the reward.
Revelation 22:12
"Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done."
Everyone receives the blessing of grace; salvation is a free gift to those who love God and who follow the Son of God. And there are rewards given for faithfulness in the Christian life and a loss of rewards for our unfaithfulness.
No one knows the exchange rate, but there is an exchange. Everyone who competes in the race receives their place (their crown) in the judgment. Somebody's got to be first and somebody's got to be last.
James 1:12
"God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."
#Salvation #ChristIsKing #Prayer #Fasting #Giving